Start Seeing Guns

Efforts need to begin now to educate business owners that they are going to start seeing guns.

Retail store owners will likely have the opportunity to declare their businesses as gun-free zones (GFZ); i..e., if they post signs of a certain minimum size and wording, they can reduce the likelihood that a legal, licensed, conceal-carry customer will enter with his weapon (worn in compliance with law).

I have already started talking to business owners. What do I get? The "deer-in-the-headlights" stare. What? Guns? In my store? Are you kidding?

Then I ask, "You know me; right? I've been a customer for years; right? If I were armed, legally, right now, would you be afraid?" The answer has always been "No".

Law-abiding gun owners are not the problem. If the conceal-carry licensed gun owner is armed, no one will ever know it. His legally-carried gun will be concealed; it will be out-of-sight.

More importantly, criminals will then have a new decision to make. Right now, criminals don't worry about whether the public is armed.

On June 9, the risk for the criminal goes way up. When he thinks (if he thinks) that some people in the place might be armed, will he weigh the risk and decide not to commit a robbery there?

Where will he go to commit his robberies? Try gun-free zones. Will he look for those businesses that are displaying GFZ signs? Will he read those signs as "Rob here. Customers are defenseless."

I myself won't be in there. I shall not shop in a business that is a GFZ. And I shall so inform the business owner or manager.